The present invention relates to a football tee with angularly adjustable ball support. In the prior art, H. Jay Spiegel, inventor herein, has invented a number of football kicking tees for supporting an American-style football for kickoffs, five of which are commercialized as of this date. These tees are displayed and discussed at the website accessible at www.4-tees.com and include:                (1) The GROUND ZERO®-1 tee which has been used in every National Football League (NFL) game over the past 15 seasons;        (2) The GROUND ZERO ONSIDE® tee which is the most popular tee in U.S. colleges;        (3) The GROUND ZERO®-2 and TOE-TAL® tees which are the most popular high school tees; and the TRIPLEX® STEALTH® tee was introduced in 2012 and is gaining in popularity in high schools and colleges.        
The GROUND ZERO®-1 and GROUND ZERO®-2 tees are covered by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,655,453; 4,657,252; and D383,816, and by U.S. Federal Trade Dress Registration Nos. 4,146,833 and 4,375,441. The TOE-TAL® tee is covered by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,655,453; 4,657,252; D291,714; D372,062; D383,816; D383,817; and D392,705, and by U.S. Federal Trade Dress Registration Nos. 4,375,463, 4,375,441; and 4,375,439. The GROUND ZERO ONSIDE® tee is covered by U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,309,316; D489,779; D507,315; D507,814; and D513,775, and by U.S. Trade Dress Registration No. 4,146,833. The TRIPLEX® STEALTH® tee is covered by U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,517,864; 8,602,918; D678,437; D634,798; and D664,221, and by U.S. Federal Trade Dress Registration No. 4,146,833.
As anyone who watches NFL football games knows, the GROUND ZERO®-1 tee allows kickers to kick the ball off through the end zone on a fly. Similarly, kickers who use the GROUND ZERO ONSIDE® tee in colleges are often able to kick off a football through the end zone on a fly. The GROUND ZERO®-2 tee and TOE-TAL® tee frequently allow high school kickers to achieve touch backs by kicking the football into the end zone or through the end zone as the case may be. Kickers have found that the TRIPLEX® STEALTH® tee even enhances the distance achievable with the other tees through its reduction in the surface area of contact between the tee and the ball. As such, enhanced results have often been observed.
Thus, while the results achievable through the use of the five football tees described above appear to adequately provide place kickers with ball support while permitting high levels of performance, it is always appropriate to seek further improvements whenever possible. In this regard, some kickers believe that performance of kickoffs is enhanced when the football is able to be supported with a laterally angulated lean. They contend that such a lean allows a cleaner “hit” on the football with enhanced results. In this regard, Garrett C. Palmer of San Diego, Calif., a former college kicker, has invented a tee that he markets through his company Genesis Pro Sports under the name “JAWBONE.” The JAWBONE tee has a version covered by U.S. Pat. No. D656,568 and contemplates a flat platform supporting the ball which leans backward against a surface and is supported in the forward direction by a plurality of upstanding bristles which supposedly permit support of the ball at a slight lateral angulation. Inventor Palmer describes and discusses performance of the JAWBONE tee on a YouTube video accessible at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBLYZzVJK_o. In the video, Mr. Palmer explains that the JAWBONE tee is intended to permit support of a football with a 6° side angulation and a 2° forward angulation. In this regard, it is noted that the five tees described above all permit the 2° forward angulation but may not permit a 6° side angulation. However, in viewing the JAWBONE video, it is noted that at the end of the video, Mr. Palmer kicks a football off the JAWBONE tee and it is apparent that the tee moves upon impact with the football by Mr. Palmer's foot. What this means is that the JAWBONE tee is unable to support a football so that it may be kicked from the JAWBONE tee without resistance. Resistance equals reduced distance and elevation. By contrast, as anyone who has observed the five Spiegel tees can state, it is easily achievable to kick a football off of any of those tees without any tee movement at all. This means a kicker is getting a clean hit on the football and is able to drive the football down field with optimal distance and elevation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,135 to Bourgeois discloses a football kicking tee support that includes two pivotable hinges to which are attached upstanding metal wire contoured arms that are designed to engage side surfaces of a football above its tip with spaced pads. As Bourgeois explains the operation of his tee, when a kicker wishes to kick a football, his toe first contacts the pivoting gates and swings them to the open position which causes the metal wire contoured arms to pivot away from the football. Applicant is unaware of any commercialization of the Bourgeois tee. This is not surprising because any tee that includes, as a design feature, the concept of actually striking the tee intentionally before striking the ball is unfeasible. When a kicker strikes the tee before striking the ball, the ball is inherently dislodged from its originally supported position and thus the kicker is always unable to obtain a clean hit on the football. The present invention distinguishes from Bourgeois as contemplating a tee in which one upstanding arm may support the football in conjunction with a ball receiving recess, but the arm is only able to pivot forward in the direction of motion of the kicker's foot to eliminate any possible resistance to kicking the ball.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,453 was issued to Applicant herein and his co-inventor Louis R. Groza otherwise known as Lou “the toe” Groza, the kicker who is widely recognized as making the field goal an important offensive weapon in the game of football. Mr. Groza is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame and the National High School Federation Hall of Fame, and retired in 1968 as the all-time leading scorer in NFL history and was also Most Valuable Player in the NFL in 1954. While his scoring record has since been eclipsed, his place in football history is secure and remembered every year as the award for best Division 1 college kicker is called the Lou Groza Award.
FIG. 19 of this patent is reproduced herein as FIG. 15 and shows a prior art design, never commercialized, which contemplates a base 11′ with outer wall 26′ and bottom 13 with surface texture 126′, a bottom surface having a ball receiving recess 27′ shaped like the surfaces of an oblate spheroidal American-style football adjacent the tip thereof with the recess supported in an insert 25′ having an outer spherical surface 43′ designed to fit within inner spherical surfaces of a recess 15′ (with a bottom wall 41′) and 36′ of a locking plug 30′ having tool receiving recess 38′. As disclosed at column 12, lines 23-25, this configuration allows the insert 25′ to be “moved to an infinite variety of angles with respect to the base 11′ to allow tilt adjustment of a ball inserted therein . . . ”. Legs 104 and 108 are partially shown. As seen with reference to FIG. 15, the tilt adjustment of the insert 25′ is severely limited by the location of the flat bottom wall 41′ which limits the tilting ability of the insert 25′ to small angles. Furthermore, as subsequent experience has revealed, when a football is supported in a ball receiving recess, rather than by upstanding prongs, the degree of tilt of the football is limited in the absence of additional side ball support. This concept was nowhere contemplated by the '453 patent, and the present invention distinguishes therefrom as contemplating an upstanding arm designed to achieve this result.